El Pasoan’s Confrontation with American Airlines Attendant Goes Viral

An intense confrontation between an American Airlines flight attendant and a passenger, who as it turns out used to live in El Paso, went viral over the weekend.

The incident happened while passengers were boarding a flight from San Francisco to Dallas on Friday (April 21). The chaos started after the woman attempted to board and store a double-wide stroller that was too big for the airplane's aisle.

According to the caption on the clip originally posted to Facebook by Surain Adyanthaya, a male flight attendant “violently” took the stroller away “from a lady with her baby...hitting her and just missing the baby. Then he tried to fight a passenger who stood up for her.”

The El Paso Times reports the passenger who came to the sobbing woman’s defense is former El Pasoan Tony Fierro.

Fierro and the flight attendant got into a heated finger-pointing exchange that nearly came to blows after Fierro confronted him, saying “Hey bud, you do that to me and I'll knock you flat."

Fierro is president of K&S Insurance in Rockwall, Texas. He attended Coronado High School and the University of Texas El Paso, according to the Times.

In a statement released over the weekend, American Airlines expressed “disappointed” over the flight attendant’s actions, adding he “has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident.”